From what i have heard it seems that the Qatar Housing Authority purposely slows the process of granting building and constructing permits for private residences that will be rented to expatriates. This means that there is a willful attempt to force the rental prices to go higher by artificially slowing the supply of residences.

I hope this is not true and I hope the good people in the Qatari authority are made aware of it and do something about it as this practice of inflation and price fixing is forbidden according to islamic law.